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Outdated Interpol advice raises red flag for Federal Police

ASHLEY HALL: The Egyptian asylum seeker named in an Interpol arrest warrant is said to be feeling vindicated after the international crime fighting agency withdrew some of the claims against him.

Interpol has dropped the murder and firearms charges from the Red Notice relating to Sayed Abdel Latif, who is being held in Australian immigration detention.

His advocate says Mr Abdel Latif maintains his innocence on the remaining accusations, including that he joined an illegal extremist group.

The Federal Government has criticised the Coalition's handling of the case, and the Australian Federal Police is voicing dissatisfaction with Interpol's initial advice.

Simon Lauder reports.

SIMON LAUDER: Interpol Red Notices are relied on by law enforcement agencies which, it seems, put a lot of faith in the accuracy of them.

But this morning Interpol announced it had reviewed the Red Notice for Sayed Abdel Latif, removing charges of premeditated murder, destruction of property, and possession of firearms, ammunition and explosives without a permit.

Those charges were cited by the Australian Federal Police late last month and pointed to repeatedly by the Coalition, which alleged the Government had kept a convicted jihadi terrorist and a murderer in low security detention.

While some serious charges have been removed, Interpol still lists membership of an illegally-formed extremist organization and forging travel documents for the organisation's members, as offences Mr Abdel Latif is wanted for by Egyptian authorities.

IAN RINTOUL: Well he's very happy that there has been this correction. It vindicates what he said all along. It's not enough. There's no substance of these charges that still remain on the Interpol notice and he looks forward to that being corrected in the very near future.

SIMON LAUDER: So he denies being a member of an extremist group?

IAN RINTOUL: Always has done, yes.

SIMON LAUDER: What did he do then to bring himself to the attention of the Egyptian authorities back in the late 90s?

IAN RINTOUL: I think we'll find that the charity that he was involved in became something of a bit of an opponent of Mubarak and that, like so many others that were in this trial, it became a convenient way of dispensing with people who were regarded as political opponents.

SIMON LAUDER: Will he be able to prove that he wasn't involved in any extremism or plans for violence?

IAN RINTOUL: Well look I think the boot's on the other foot, isn't it? The AFP have jumped to conclusions without making proper investigations, the Coalition has made those allegations without knowing that there's no substance, or without caring whether there's any substance to those allegations or not. There is simply no evidence for, you know, either of the remaining allegations against Sayed.

SIMON LAUDER: Australia's Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr.

BOB CARR: I'd like to see what Interpol has said and I'd like to get that assessed by the Government's lawyers before I draw any conclusions and I think with a moving situation like this a bit of caution is appropriate.

SIMON LAUDER: The Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus is using the latest developments to criticise the Coalition for not being more cautious.

In a written statement he says the changes to the Interpol Red Notice highlight the need not to play politics with national security. He says politicians should not jump to conclusions and seek to create hysteria through fear-mongering.

SCOTT MORRISON: It was never our assertion. It was the assertion and it was the statement and advice provided to the Government. The issue here relates to this, frankly, and that is our Government was told by ASIO and the AFP that this individual was the subject of these convictions and was in Australia. The Government did absolutely nothing.

SIMON LAUDER: Monash University Law lecturer, Dr Patrick Emerton, says the Interpol Red Notice has been misused in a dangerous and misleading way in the political debate.

PATRICK EMERTON: When you take, say, a Red Notice, so an instrument that's meant to be part of the criminal justice process, and use it in a different context for assessing whether or not people are a threat to Australia and therefore should or shouldn't be admitted to Australia, taking it into that different context can cause a breakdown.

Suppose for example there was reason to think that aspects of the charges were political or were suspect in some other way, and I think that would certainly be relevant if we're thinking about charges coming out of the former Egyptian government, then all that matter would be argued out at an extradition hearing for example.

SIMON LAUDER: Having relied on the original Interpol Red Notice when it told Senate Estimates about the accusations against Mr Abdel Latif just two weeks ago, the Australian Federal Police is not happy to learn it was inaccurate.

In a statement the AFP says it will write to the Interpol secretary-general expressing its concerns, but that its evidence to the Senate Estimates Committee was true to Interpol's advice at the time.